Saturday, 30 March 2013

With this extended winter we've been having in the UK, we
all have to make a decision on whether to ignore it and just get our Summer on
regardless of the temperature or just let the weather dictate to us and climb
back in to our fur lined onesies and eat custard all day. I've been leaning
towards the former for a while but looking at the bleak greyness outside my
window, the Lindsay Tin might just sway me back the other way. It's not
surprising that a record written in a South Shields attic during the winter has
an element of bleakness about it but the richness of 'They Wear Wolf In London'
is a pleasantly refreshing jolt. The thudding drums and chugging bass perfectly
juxtapose the delicate guitar work and understated vocals to create something
akin to the Arcade Fire, Marmaduke Dando or the Little Philistines. This is the
earthy claret to winter's beef stew or the mug of tea to the British climate's
freshly baked biscuit. That's it, I'm popping my onesie back one and leaving my
Bermuda shorts in the cupboard for another month.

Friday, 29 March 2013

I love a bit of funk, a bit of
Disco and a bit of a boogie. Maybe not all the time but in the right
environment it can be a beautiful thing and can lift your mood and make you
shake your booty. Irish combo Tieranniesaur create something funky and
potentially groovesome but there is something lacking in DIYSCO that is really
irking me. I could cope with the slightly off-key harmonies or the bass being
far too low in the mix or even the fact that at times the song seems to slip
slightly out of time, these are all things that can be excused in the pursuit
of finding the essence of a great song. But what really doesn't sit well with
me is the almost complete lack of interest from the band in their own song. Imagine
an 80s Disco diva who has taken being cool and disinterested to such depths
that they are actually just bored by everything and that is essentially what
this song sounds like. It's a shame because I have a space in my life for an
Irish experimental funk-disco-pop combo with some imagination but this just
sounds rushed and more throwaway than it deserves to be.

More information: https://www.facebook.com/pages/tieranniesaur/110975412280662?fref=ts

OK. This is serious stuff. Most
of the time I get sent perfectly competent music by reasonable musicians and,
I'm sure, lovely people. Every now and again though, something comes through
that genuinely stops me in my tracks and reminds me how lucky I am to be able
to share great, new music with you. I had heard of Swim Deep before I received
a copy of their new single but everything I'd heard somehow convinced me they
were a Westcoast American bunch of
misfits making stoner rock for slackers and dropouts (nothing wrong with that
by the way, some of my best friends are slackers). However, much to my delight,
Swim Deep are actually a quartet from Birmingham (UK not Alabama) formed
through chance meetings, boredom and a sense of want more out of life - the way
all great bands are formed.

For a single, 'She Changes The
Weather' is beautifully brave, determined, unrelenting and expansive to such an
extent that it is absolutely natural for this record to have a nearly two minute
intro. The looped piano riff that brings 'She Changes The Weather' to life is
not particularly melodic but conjours the wide streets and immaculate front
lawns of middle America with children playing openly on an optimistically warm
Saturday morning. As the drums join in, almost shuffling through the garage
door, the tune starts to swell and take shape and you can feel that sunshine
burn through the haze and start to warm the world around you. This is a record
that inflates you with positivity and allows your soul to float above the
streets, to rise above the mire. Vocals akin to Tim Burgess at his sleepiest,
guitars that Smashing Pumpkins would be proud of and a wall of sound that
Nirvana would have made if they'd only had one positive song. This is part
Shoe-gaze, part grunge, part Indie and a great big dollop of soul warmed
through with the sunshine of your youth. Mainly, though, this is simply one of
the most refreshing, exciting and intriguing pieces of music created by a
British band that I have heard in years. There is a debut album coming soon and
a string of live dates that you really ought to cast an eye over but for the
time being I think that 'She Changes The Weather' should keep you going for
quite a while - I've given it about 15 listens so far and it's still
fascinatingly beautiful.

It's been a little while since
I've had the time to sit down and get any blogging done so I was really excited
about the prospect of an inbox full of audio treats to wrap my ears around like
a single girl with a box of chocolates on valentine's day. The first selection I made was a six piece
from Australia's Gold Coast by the name of Fairchild - recently changed from
Fairchild Republic which I think is a good move as they now sound less like a conceited
clothing store for the impossibly thin and constipated - and what a selection
it was! The opening and title track of this EP is sumptuous slice if
indie-pop-rock that is instantly infectious and fits in neatly alongside
Vampire Weekend, Maccabees, Foals, Peace or Two Door Cinema Club. What makes
this stand out though is the voice of singer Adam Lyons which has the texture
of velvet, the allure of hot tub on a cold day but the impact of a Kangaroo
punch to the diaphragm. Vocally and stylistically Lyons is somewhere in the
Brandon Boyd league of singers which is no bad thing in my book.

'Stay Young' is an anthemically
intentioned song that never quite delivers on its promise but is nonetheless
better than anything produced by the Feeling, Snow Patrol or Keane in recent
years. 'Outside' is full of delicate guitars, swoopy synths and crashing
cymbals but, again, it feels like an album track rather than anything more
vital. Final track, 'Running Bear', has more intrigue about it with a dark and
sparse electro intro that draws you in immediately before the song starts to
build in to something bigger, something better. Elements of the Killers or
alt-pop acts like Kimbra and Robyn are clearly there but these 6 gentleman are
hanging on to Indie for dear life and I think that might be what's holding them
back. For years, I've been waiting for a really good pop act to come along that
do justice to the genre without being a manufactured abomination or a flash in
the pan. I feel like Fairchild have the ability to be that pop act but it
depends on whether they have the guts. Like openly gay sportsmen, unashamed pop
acts are rare but fantastic things.

Saturday, 16 March 2013

Seriously,
Bristol, give it a rest. You’re becoming a little bit like watching your
favourite comedian whilst at that perfect level of drunk. Sure, all the jokes
are fantastic and you’re crying with laughter but after a while you’re all
laughed out and you just start thinking about getting a kebab on the way home.
Right now, Bristol seems to be churning out such a steady stream of fantastic
bands (Velcro Hooks and Me, You & Thomas to name but two) that
it’s just not funny anymore. Maybe it wasn’t supposed to be funny in the first
place, but Bristolian trio Bridges are still repeating the joke like your
pissed up mate in the pub trying to profit off your jokes (you know who you
are). Having formed less than a year ago, they have already carved a niche for
themselves in the indie-grunge-pop genre. Ethan Proctor’s articulate and
crystal clear vocals coupled with the choppy guitars evoke audio images of
Young Knives and long forgotten 90s bands like Livingstone and Honeycrack.
There’s a tightness and drive to the music that is reminiscent of early Arctic
Monkeys material but with a more American West coast vibe that somehow has more
sunshine about it than Alex Turner could ever manage. Maybe I’ll hold off on
that kebab for now, this joke has legs yet.

Friday, 15 March 2013

It looks like the Northeast is
making a bid for my favourite new scene, hot on the heels of Bristol and
Cornwall. Air To Achilles are another group of imaginative and creative young
chaps from Newcastle putting out sonically challenging but simultaneously
melodic material that grabs you by the brain and the balls. ‘Fields of Mercy’
is the band’s latest single and is full of bouncy bass lines, jangly guitars,
subtle synths and huge harmonies. This is part 90s Scottish jangle-pop, part
Scando-indie and a little bit of Asian indie-pop (check the band Holy City
Rollers if you don’t believe me) but they certainly don’t sound like any other
English band I’ve heard for quite some time and that is no bad thing. If you
add in to the mix a producer in Johannes Rowlinson (The Sugarcubes, Johnny
Foreigner, Minus) then you get a Spector-ish wall of sound that you might as
well just wash over you. In fact, do it now. Just turn it up loud, pour
yourself an alcopop, strap yourself in to your favourite chair and let it wash
over you. Superb.

Monday, 11 March 2013

OK, let’s just get this out of
the way. The singer in this band is called Rihanna. We could spend this time
talking about that or we could spend it talking about the music. So what’s it
to be? Wrong, we’re going to talk about the music, ya numpty. Confusingly,
Bristol band Me, You and Thomas are actually a duet featuring Rhianna Berarey on
Guitar and Vocals alongside Joe Sherrin on drums who combine to make a
beautifully chaotic but melodic mess. ‘Eventually’ is the duo’s second single on
the Howling Owl label and it hits you full around the face with relentless punk
beats and a circular riff that is hard to resist. Berarey channels the lo-fi Indie
queens in her vocals to great effect, evoking the spirits of Tanya Donnelly,
Sonya Aurora Madan , Justine Frischmann and Louise Wener while the music could
slot in nicely alongside White Stripes, Veruca Salt or Lush.

Seriously, this infectious stuff
and a must listen for anyone who has ever shuffled around the edge of an Indie
Disco dance floor just waiting for the song to erupt. For a two piece with the
combined age of about 12 (honestly, don’t the young just make you sick?) they
do make an almighty racket but they always manage to rein in that power and
keep it firmly controlled along with the rhythm and the melody. There is no let
up in quality on ‘Stop Here’ as MYAT explore their more grungy side; increasing
the ‘wall of sound’ and really pushing the limits of what you can do with a
sparse set up. Final track ‘Boundary’ is a slower, more introspective number
which acts as a window to a more expansive future for the band. Atmospheric
guitar picking, haunting vocal harmonies and somewhere the distant tinkling of
an ivory or two hints at what these two could produce with a big studio, some
time and lots of expensive red wine. For now though, they are producing music
their own way and on their own terms which alright by me. I’m not convinced by
the name but then I thought mobile phones would be a flash in the pan so what
do I know!?!?

Wednesday, 6 March 2013

There is an awful lot about the band Orange Room that
shouldn’t work. A band that formed in Melbourne, Australia, and then relocated
to Liverpool. Odd. A band that play dark, sinister, Dick Dale-esque guitars but
write great songs with catchy chorus lyrics. Weird. A band that sound like they
should be rock’n’roll monsters but have a video that suggests they are fairly
tame on stage. Huh? A band that play ballsy, bass-in-your-face, indie-rock with
a twang but release a single which is essentially advising folk not to go out
and drugs so much as its bad for their health. WTF!?!

Having said that, maybe it’s these differences that make
Orange Room such an appealing concept and why I’ve had this single on a loop
for the past 30 minutes. ‘We Told You Not To Go’ has elements of the
Courteeners, Kasabian, Reverend and the Makers and Reef that make it pretty
addictive and irresistible. The verses are all hypnotic bass lines and open
high-hats while the chorus comes crashing in with swathing guitars and a
beautifully sneered vocal. This isn’t ground breaking stuff but the songwriting
is polished and the attitude is spot on which is more than half the battle in
my book. It’s better than anything the Stereophonics or Oasis have produced in
the last 10 years anyway!

Tuesday, 5 March 2013

There are few things in music more likely to make me
instantly fall for a band than hearing their native accents come through in the
vocals. Bands from the North East seem particularly good at this with Maximo
Park being favourites of LWM but Athletes In Paris are making a late charge for
my affections. This latest single from the Sunderland five-piece is catchy,
Indie-poppy stuff that is dripping in personality and reminds me of some of the
late 90s Welsh bands that did so well like Super Furry Animals, 60ft Dolls and early
Stereophonics. You’ll have to give the song a few listens to get anywhere near
understanding the verses but the chorus is catchy, the hooks are infectious and
the double drummers give the song a rhythmic quality that is overlooked by so
many bands these days. The quirk with ‘Borrowed Time’ is that you could
feasibly see this cleaned up, autotuned and given to One Direction to perform
and it would be a fine enough tune but all soul, spirit and personality would
be lost. Vive le accent and vive le songwriter!

I’ve been reviewing a lot of downbeat stuff recently and
there’s nothing wrong that but Spring is round the corner and my thoughts are
already turning to heaving tents full of people dancing to uplifting tunes.
Media Sales executives forgetting their soullessness, office workers
rediscovering their personalities and students creating memories that will
sustain them when they become office workers or Media Sales executives. These
people need a new soundtrack and Masters In France might just be the ones to
provide it. ‘Flexin’’ is a slab of bass heavy, synth laden, head bobbing
brilliance straight outta the mean streets of North Wales and I defy you to
stay static once this tune has kicked in. Despite the fact that the band look
like four children’s TV presenters that were fired for doing too many drugs on
set, the sound they create is an addictive mix of LCD Soundsystem, Happy
Mondays, Hot Chip and Transformer that is sure to be soundtracking a Channel 4
montage before too long. Fearne Cotton’s a fan but don’t let that put you off,
check ‘em out.